Search

Search for:

How to Buy Vegetables

You’re probably looking at the title and thinking “How hard can it be to buy some vegetables?” but believe me, there are a lot of people out there who just don’t buy them. Although they may eat them in restaurants or at mom’s house when they return home, buying a turnip or an artichoke or some carrots can be confusing. People today eat out so often that if someone does decide they want to eat a more balanced diet, it could lead them to the supermarket or farmer’s market to buy vegetables for the first time where they think “Well, how do I know which one is good?”

Fortunately the United States Department of Agriculture has put together a helpful infographic that will hold your hand through the vegetable-buying process. Lifehacker has a great post about the image along with a few other tidbits of information that might be useful, but the image itself is what’s key, and you can find it below. Download it (or the PDF here) to your phone and keep it with you so when you’re wandering through the produce section for the first time, you don’t end up buying vegetables that taste bad or die after a few days. Also, make sure to check out the Lifehacker article linked above, as the author also breaks down some other helpful tips such as how to handle produce, why you should cook your vegetables, ignoring the price tag, what to do with oddly shaped veggies, how to properly store your tomatoes, and the article links to a post on how to determine when it’s time to eat corn or pumpkin.

If you’ve wanted to try preparing vegetables in your own kitchen but found the shopping process a little daunting, you have no excuses anymore! Check out the full-size image after the break: